RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Iranian President Hassan Rouhani pledged Friday that his country would honor what he called a historic agreement to curb its nuclear program, provided that world powers uphold their end of the deal to ease economic pressures.
“We don’t cheat. We are not two-faced,” Rouhani said in a televised address a day after negotiators reached a framework on the nuclear deal. “If we’ve given a promise … we will take action based on that promise. Of course, that depends on the other side taking action on their promises, too.”
There were a range of other views across the Middle East, including cautious hope in Saudi Arabia, internal dissent in Iran and open hostility in Israel. The reactions underscored the potentially difficult diplomatic and security challenges facing Washington and how the region’s political dimensions could be reordered by the possibility that the United States and Iran might move beyond an estrangement that reaches back more than 35 years.
In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stood firm on his opposition to any deal that allowed Iran the ability to enrich uranium and keep other nuclear technology. The framework, Netanyahu said, “would legitimize Iran’s nuclear program, bolster Iran’s economy, and increase Iran’s aggression and terror throughout the Middle East and beyond.”
Saudi Arabia’s King Salman staked out less confrontational ground, telling President Barack Obama that he hoped it would strengthen “stability and security” in the region.
Salman’s remarks suggested no major policy shifts by Saudi Arabia or its Persian Gulf Arab partners after the announcement Thursday of a framework that would place limits on Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for easing international sanctions.
Iran insists it wants to produce nuclear fuel for energy-producing reactors and medical applications. Israel and others worry that Iran could one day use the same enrichment process to make warhead-grade material.
“Today is a day that will remain in the historic memory of the Iranian nation,” said Rouhani, speaking from Tehran. “Some think that we must either fight the world or surrender to world powers,. We say it is neither of those; there is a third way. We can have cooperation with the world.”
But the framework was slammed by some hard-liners who view it as demanding too many concessions from Tehran. Hossein Shariatmadari, editor of the hard-line Kayhan daily, was quoted by the Fars News Agency as complaining that Iran exchanged its “ready-to-race horse” for one with a “broken bridle.”
